Holmes takes the strongest case in Hit Refresh, by Satya Nadella: chapter three, summer 2013, Ballmer polls his lieutenants on the $7.2 billion Nokia deal, thumbs up or down. Nadella votes no: no third phone ecosystem without new rules. The deal closes months into his own tenure anyway, then a total write-off and nearly 18,000 jobs. The lesson in his words: buying weak market share is always risky. He voted no, and paid regardless.
The strongest case in Hit Refresh is the Nokia vote in chapter three: in summer 2013 Steve Ballmer asked his direct reports to vote thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the $7.2 billion Nokia deal, Nadella voted no because he did not see why the world needed a third phone ecosystem unless the rules changed, the deal closed a few months after he became chief executive, it was too late to regain lost ground, and months later he announced a total write-off and nearly eighteen thousand job cuts; his lesson is that buying a company with weak market share is always risky.
On the book: Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
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Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
HarperCollins · Jan 1, 2017
